Abstract:

In the history of the cultural exchange between China and Western countries, the spreading of Tang poems into the English world is a big event, for which a group of missionaries and diplomats give a beginning, thus laying a good foundation. The first missionary translator was Robert Morrison whose Translations from the Original Chinese with Notes was published in 1915 by East India Company in Canton. And Joseph Edkins, as a missionary, had lived in China for half a century, and published two essays that made a critical comment on Li Bai and his poems. And Sir John Francis Davis, Edward Harper Parke, Herbert Allen Giles and William John Bainbrigge Fletcher, who are early diplomats of the British Embassy in China, all had made their translation and introduction, among which Fletcher' s Gems of Chinese Verse was the first uncompleted Tang poems in English version, giving a deep influence. All these missionaries and diplomats came to China either in the 19th century or in the beginning of the 20th century. Since they had lived in China for a long time, they had a good grasp of Chinese language and a considerable understanding of Chinese traditional culture. Their translating, although not from firstrate origins, and having lots of flaws, or even much misunderstanding, not only manifests their respect and love for Tang poems as the ancient Chinese tradition but also, from different sides and different levels, promotes Tang poems as an important part of the Chinese ancient literature into the cultural view of Western countries so that the cultural explorers in the English world can look, here and there, up into the crest of the eastern poetic country.
Key words：  translating Tang poems into English; British sinologist; missionary; diplomat; cultural exchange between China and Western cultures

Key words:  translating Tang poems into English; British sinologist; missionary; diplomat; cultural exchange between China and Western cultures